Dear Parents,

Happy New Year! Welcome back to our third quarter of the school year. I can’t believe the second half of the year is here. I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families during the holidays. On behalf of Ms. Peterson, and myself, I want to say a big thank you to you all for your support, encouragement, and kind gifts to us. Our hearts were touched, and we are truly blessed to have very supportive parents.

By now, you should have had time to look at your child’s report card. After making few calls, I decided to postpone my phone calls until after you view your child’s report card. I will resume my calls tomorrow afternoon with all hope that I will speak to every one before the end of next week. This is a brief look at our nineteenth week.

LANGUAGE ARTS  

SPALDING – We will continue with our spelling list this week. Please, review homework as they come home. This week, we will have only two days of spelling.

List 1: small, smaller, smallest, war, summer, above, express, turn, lesson, half

List 2: father, anything, table, high, June, right, write, wrote, date

READING – READING STRATEGY: In comprehension, students will learn how to monitor their own comprehension. This is a very important skill for constructing meaning.  

 One good way to monitor comprehension is through self-questioning. Please encourage your scholars to engage in self-questioning. If they cannot answer questions posed to themselves while reading, then they have to go back and read the passage again.

POETRY: Title:

Our poem this month is “Smart” Author: Shel Silverstein

This poem will be memorized over the course of 5 weeks. (Each week students will work on one stanza, and build on to what they've learned in subsequent weeks.)

SAYING: To Turn Over a New Leaf means to make a fresh start, to change your behavior or attitude. (In the 16th century people referred to pages in a book as “leaves”. When they turned over a new leaf it meant they were turning to a blank page in a workbook to start a new lesson.) We will appreciate it if you use it at home because children retain sayings when they engage in it through meaningful use.

           

GRAMMAR/VOCABULARY – We will review all parts of speech learned so far, and practice identifying and using direct quotations.

WRITING – As we continue working on Writing With Ease, students will continue to develop narration, dictation and copy work skills.

LEVELED READERS

Please, encourage your scholars to take their readings seriously. Some students will begin reading chapter books this quarter. The goal is to phase all students into reading chapter books. Let me know if you have questions about when your child would begin chapter books.

MATH

We will begin division by 2s. Please, continue to work on timed mental math homework. Please, help us ensure the time (2mins) indicated on the worksheet is adhered to.

SCIENCE

We will begin our unit on insects this week, and our focus will be on the characteristics of insects. The big question will be: What are the fundamental characteristics that all insects should have to be called an insect.

HISTORY

  In History, we will learn about the Olympics and the Persian wars. Children will learn about where the Olympics originated from and some of the games that people engaged in back in those days when it started. They will also learn about the courage of the Greeks when they were faced with the fighting a war against Persians.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

 Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see. ~Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (introduction), 1982

Announcements

• Due to cooler weather, shorts are no longer permitted. If your child wears a skirt, please have her wear tights or knee-high socks.
• There will be no guided reading or Math groups this week. Special thanks to : Mrs. Antoniello, Mrs. Lavell, Mrs. Gerson, Mrs. Zinke, Mrs. Everhart, and Mrs. Sinykin. These parents have been extremely supportive and helpful to us. We are thankful for you all.
• There will be no tutoring this week.
• Please, if you have any area of expertise that corresponds with what we are learning in any subject area, feel free to contact me about doing a presentation to the class.

Have a great week.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Toyin and Ms. Peterson